A 58-year-old male with no past medical history presenting to the emergency department with 2-month history of increasingly severe generalized abdominal pain accompanied by intermittent “stabbing sensations” with or without eating. The patient states the pain is so severe he has been unable to sleep and over the past few weeks he has noted dark stools, intermittent fevers, nights sweats, and chills. He reports an approximately 43-pound weight loss over the past few months some of which he attributes to intentional weight loss. The patient reports vomiting after eating if he lays down and only able to eat or drink while standing. Social history includes a 10 pack-year smoking history with cessation 6 months ago. He denies heavy alcohol use or history of pancreatitis.

Our society has been extremely productive over the past several months. The creation of an excellent program for the Companion Society by our Education Committee is only one of several accomplishments. I am excited to inform everyone that Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is going to publish review articles sponsored by the PBPath Society. These articles are based on the lectures that were given during our Companion Society Meeting at USCAP 2019. Please keep an eye out for these publications. Our Case of the Quarter Subcommittee remains active and has been providing educational cases for all members to tackle; this past fall, we welcomed 4 new members to the subcommittee: Deyali Chatterjee, Goo Lee, Yue Xue and Zhaohai Yang. Our bimonthly Journal Watch nicely highlights pertinent publications involving the pancreatobiliary tract.

And there is more good news. Because of Serdar Balci’s web-based knowledge and dedication to the society, the Membership/Website Committee, along with the Executive Committee, have appointed Serdar Balci as the official Webmaster for the society – congratulations Serdar on this well-deserved appointment! The PBPath Society is also now accepting ads for job and fellowship postings. The Working Groups have been productive as well: The Cytology group is wrapping-up a multi-institutional study assessing the minimal number of tumor cells required for Ki67 index calculation on pancreas FNA samples using corresponding resections as the gold standard for comparison, and the Neoadjuvant group presented their data at the 2019 USCAP Annual Meeting and is planning to write a consensus paper based on the group’s work. This past fall, PBPath Society members also participated in the ASCP, CAP and European Congress of Pathology annual meetings. Most recently, we’ve been asked to provide input on the ICCR’s draft dataset on carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas (please check your emails as the deadline is February 14th).

Our society continues to be a success because of you, its members! I would like to recognize the following members who continuously contribute time and effort to our society: Olca Basturk, for organizing another stellar USCAP Companion Society session; Serdar Balci for publishing the bimonthly journal watch; Mabel Ko for managing our website and the members of the Executive Committee, Grace Kim, David Klimstra, David Lewin, Volkan Adsay, and Olca Basturk, for keeping everything on track and in order.

The PBPath Society is an international organization that strives to improve the clinical practice of pancreatobiliary pathology by providing an environment of team work and cooperation. As my Presidency comes to an end, it amazes me how much we have accomplished over the past 2 years. None of what we now have would have been possible without such collegial, friendly, and motivated members. I am so happy and so proud that I had the chance to serve as the President of this great society.

World Pancreatic Cancer Day

November is the Pancreatic Cancer Awareness month and November 21st is World Pancreatic Cancer day.

We, the Pancreatobiliary Pathology Society, support the mission to raise awareness and inspire action on this day.

We send our support to the survivors, their families and to everyone who has lost a loved one to this deadly disease. We also reiterate our dedication to improve the clinical practice and management of pancreatic cancer and to foster tissue-based research.